Families line up for school-required whooping cough vaccine

Erick Sandoval of Ventura High School receives a whooping cough vaccination from Elvia Torres, medical office assistant at Las Islas Family Medical Group. The vaccinations were given Friday at Balboa Middle School in Ventura.

Mobil clinics

Upcoming low or no-cost clinics offering the whooping cough booster vaccine for students in grades 7-12, offered by Ventura County Public Health and Las Islas Mobile Clinic:

Thursday: 3:30 to 8 p.m. at E.O. Green School in Oxnard.

Friday: 12 to 4 p.m. at Anacapa Middle School in Ventura.

Aug. 23: 7 a.m. to noon at Moorpark High School.

Aug. 26: 8 a.m. to noon at Hillside Middle School in Simi Valley.

Aug. 30: 3:30 to 7:30 p.m. at De Anza Academy of Technology & the Arts in Ventura.

Parents or legal guardians must be present for children under 18. Families also should bring the child's insurance card and all immunization records.

Scores of students lined up recently outside Balboa Middle School in Ventura, waiting to get a whooping cough booster vaccine before school starts.

As public health officials try to thwart a whooping cough outbreak, the state now requires the vaccine for students in grades 7-12. A new state law requires students to show proof they have had the booster shot when they return to school.

Local school districts have spent months trying to get the word out, sending phone messages and notes home and posting messages on school marquees and information on websites.

"There have been quite a few students who have turned in the documentation," said Karlyn Bock, health administrator for the Ventura County Office of Education. "However, there's still a large number who need to get the dose."

Facing concerns that students without the vaccination would have to be turned away on the first day of school, state legislators recently gave districts a 30-day leeway.

"What's good about it is that kids can start school. We want them in school. They belong in school," Bock said. But 30 days is not much time, she said, "so we hope families do not put it off."

Last year, 8,383 cases of whooping cough, also called pertussis, were reported in the state, the most in a year since 1947, the California Department of Public Health reported.

Whooping cough is a highly contagious illness known for uncontrollable, violent coughing, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It most commonly affects infants and young children and can be fatal.

Immunization is the best protection, officials say. While younger children routinely are vaccinated, the immunization wears off and older children and adults need boosters.

Families can file a personal-belief waiver against vaccination, but it is a special form for the whooping cough vaccine, Bock said. If families already have filled out similar forms for other vaccines, they must fill out the new one, too.

Public health officials caution that not getting a booster increases the risk of spreading the illness.

At Balboa on Friday, about 200 people were lined up in the first hour of a vaccine clinic jointly offered by Ventura County Public Health and the Las Islas Mobile Medical Clinic. Families without insurance could get the vaccination for free.

Other clinics are scheduled for schools in Oxnard, Ventura, Simi Valley and Moorpark throughout August.